Daniel Ramsey couldn’t find a spot, but his season didn’t go to waste

Xavier basketball was rolling to a nerve-wracking end to the season, then a global pandemic hit the brakes so hard I went right into the windshield. We’ve shaken ourselves off a bit here and will continue, somewhat belatedly, with our breakdown of one of the weirdest Xavier seasons on record.

Daniel Ramsey came to Xavier with his work cut out for him. He needed to earn minutes early, consolidate his spot in a rotation loaded with talent, and then stay healthy. Ramsey was heavily recruited by many high majors, his talent to do the first two things on that list was never in question. His health, unfortunately, was.

A large part of college basketball is being in basketball shape. Danny suffered a knee injury while in Spain at the start of the year and found himself playing catch up. That ended in the same game where KyKy Tandy made his debut, a Thanksgiving week home tilt against Lipscomb. Ramsey made his only shot, grabbed a board, and logged three minutes. Then he vanished again.

Despite his best efforts, Danny simply couldn’t stay healthy enough to crack the rotation. Ultimately his lifelong battle with Blount’s disease and the concussion he suffered in practice limited him to just those three minutes. At this point, there hasn’t been an announcement from Xavier that Ramsey took a medical redshirt. It’s entirely possible that, James Farr like, he has burned an entire year of eligibility for just a brief stint of time.

By every measure though, Ramsey put in work this year. He remains a good shooter in a big body. That will always play. Xavier lost Tyrique Jones and Naji Marshall from rotation players in the post. Dontarious James is also not there to take time away anymore. Bryan Griffin will certainly say something about that, but the new recruiting class isn’t deep in the post. Danny Ramsey is going to get one more chance to show he can play at this level if he can stay healthy.